VALLEY CITY, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – A public input meeting about proposed renovations along Central Avenue from Main Street to 5th Street north in Valley City was held last night.

Dawn Riley is the owner of a downtown business, she doesn’t support the idea of widening sidewalks, but she stressed the importance of promoting downtown businesses.

In the past, some downtown business owners said they don’t support widening sidewalks due to snow removal and that it isn’t necessary.

In the following audio cut, city resident Dan Klein supports the project while Marie Lorenz believes Valley City already has a nice downtown shopping district. Further in business owner Ryan Mathias believes this project will benefit the city in the future while city resident Gary Schlegel questioned whether the project was necessary.

Bobby Koepplin supports the idea and believes it will be a positive draw for downtown Valley City once the project is completed.

KLJ engineer Chad Petersen said nothing has been finalized and the city is gathering public input before making any final decisions on the project.

The second public input meeting will be held on Monday, December 11th in the High School Cafeteria from 5:30pm to 7:30pm.

The estimated total cost of the project is $1.5 million. Under the plan, 80 percent of the project will be paid for by the state via of federal highway funds already in place for Valley City. The city would have to pay 20 percent of the $1.5 million. City officials say there will be no special assessments for downtown business owners under this project.